


They Were Afraid To Fall

by Lilluv



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Homophobia, M/M, Mentions of past abuse, Modern AU, Slow Burn, some violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2020-08-10 23:29:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 20,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20143768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilluv/pseuds/Lilluv
Summary: Jack and Davey were best friends in elementary school. When Davey moves away, Jack is devastated. Five years later, when Davey moves back, the two fall back into their normal routine, but something is different this time. They seem... closer. It doesn't seem like friendship anymore. It seems like love.





	1. Prologue

Jack and Davey ran hand and hand across the small city playground once the recess aid opened the door, running towards the jungle gym. Jack dropped Davey's hand when they got to the slide, and started to climb up to the top of the jungle gym from the bottom, and Davey, out of breath, followed him.

"Hey!" A recess aid yelled at them as they were halfway up the slide. "No climbing the slides! You're in first grade! You should know better!"

Davey turned around and slid down the slide, and he could hear Jack following him.

When they were both back on the ground, Davey said, "I told you that why would get yelled at!"

"Come on! Let's go to the swings!" Jack said, ignoring Davey's comment and grabbing his hand again, leading them towards the swing.

Davey was surprised to see the swings empty when they got there. The swings were never empty.

Jack pulled Davey to the swings farthest from the school building, letting his hand go as they sat down, then grabbing it again once they were settled.

"Davey?" Jack asked, looking at the ground. He was tapping his fingers on Davey's hand.

"Yes?" Davey asked.

"Can we get married?" Jack asked, looking up at Davey. He could feel a smile spreading across his face.

"Of course!" Davey exclaimed, jumping up off the swing to hug Jack, never letting go of his hand. When he pulled away and sat back down, Jack was smiling ear to ear, which made Davey feel happier than he already was.

XXX

When Davey got home that night, he announced to his parents and older sister Sarah that he was going to marry Jack when they were older.

"That's not fair!" Sarah exclaimed. "I want someone to marry!"

"You're only in second grade, dear." Their mom consoled. "You have plenty of time."

"I'm gonna get my friend Katherine to marry me!" She exclaimed, marching down the hall to her room. "That'll show _you, _Davey!"

Once Sarah was gone, Davey looked to his Dad.

"When can I marry Jack?" He asked, eager to start planning their dream wedding.

"Wait until after you graduate." His Dad said, crouching down in front of Davey. "Graduate, and then you can get married."

"Ok!" Davey said. He ran to his room, pulled a piece of paper out of his desk to draw what their wedding would look like. He was eager to show Jack the next day.

XXX

"Oh, come on, mom!" Davey moaned as his mom shoved a sign that read _First Day of 5th Grade!_ in his hands.

"Just stand with Jack so I can take the picture!" His mom exclaimed. Davey rolled his eyes, then slung his arm lazily over Jack's shoulder next to him as their moms snapped pictures with their phones.

"Are you guys done yet?" Jack whined, brushing his hand up against Davey's, going to grab it so they could walk to the bus stop.

"No." His mom replied sternly. "Just a few more pictures."

Jack and Davey both rolled their eyes as their moms took more pictures.

Finally, Davey's mom said, "Ok, boys. You can go."

"Thank you." Jack rolled his eyes again, grabbing Davey's hand and leading them off the bus stop.

"Day! Day!" Les called after him as they walked down the hall towards the stairs that led to the street, running towards them on stubby two-year-old legs.

Davey dropped Jack's hand and turned to Les, scooping him up in his arms.

"Day!" Les exclaimed again.

"I've gotta go." Davey lamented to his baby brother. "But I'll see you after school, ok?"

"Day!" Les just exclaimed again. Davey kissed his baby brother on his forehead, then placed him back down on the floor, much to Les's dismay. He turned back to stand next to Jack, grabbed his hand, and they walked together to the bus stop.

"Good luck at school!" Davey's mom exclaimed after them.

"We love you!" Jack's mom added. Davey and Jack ignored them and just kept walking, not even looking back.

The boys walked down the stairs, out of the house, and down the block to the bus stop in a comfortable silence. They had been best friends since kindergarten, and they had gotten used to it. They could just sit together in silence, and it would be ok. They just enjoyed each other's presence.

When they got to the bus stop, Davey felt himself getting really excited. He used his free hand to adjust his backpack on his shoulders, then turned to Jack.

"Are you excited for school?" He asked him.

"Eh." Jack said. "I don't really like school."

"Since when?" Davey asked. "You used to love school!"

"My Dad was a teacher." He explained. "Ever since he left over the summer, it's been hard to find the joy in school."

"Oh." Davey said. "I'm sorry. I forgot." He squeezed the shorter boy's hand in comfort.

"It's ok." Jack said.

Jack's dad had left him and his mom on their own one night in July. He left a note on their kitchen table that told him he had to go, and he was sorry, and they never saw him again. Jack always got really down whenever someone brought it up.

The bus that read _Manhattan School District _pulled up in front of them, and they climbed onto the bus, along with the other boys and girls that had congregated around the bus stop.

Davey led Jack to a seat in the middle of the bus, never letting go of his hand, and they sat down next to each other. Jack just looked at the floor.

"Jack?" Davey started.

"Yeah?" Jack responded, clearly still a little upset.

"You know we're still getting married, right?" Davey reassured, squeezing his best friend's hand.

"Yeah?" Jack asked again, a different tone to his voice this time.

"Yeah." Davey confirmed, and Jack layed his head on his best friend's shoulder. Davey felt so lucky to have such an amazing best friend.


	2. Brave New World

"Good afternoon, Lower Manhattan High School!" The principal came over the loudspeaker and started. "This is a reminder that with the second semester starting tomorrow..."

Jack tuned out the voice and focused on the half-eaten sandwich in front of him. He wasn't big for eating lunch, but Medda would get mad at him if he didn't, so he always tried to at least choke a sandwich down.

"Hey Jack." Sarah said from across the lunch table, pulling Jack out of his own mind.

"Yeah?" He asked, putting his joke of a lunch down.

"You remember Davey, right?" She asked.

"How could I forget?" I countered, making her laugh.

"He's coming back tomorrow." Sarah stated, clearly excited.

"He... What?" I asked. "He's coming back?"

"Who's Davey?" Race asked, momentarily pulling his face off his boyfriend Spot's neck to speak.

"What? Your mouth isn't glued to Spots neck?" Albert teased.

Race flipped him off, then turned back to Sarah.

"My younger brother." Sarah explained. "He's a junior."

"Your brother?" Crutchie asked. "If he's your brother, where's he been all this time?"

"When my parents split five years ago, Davey decided to go live in California with our dad." Sarah explained, clearly getting a little emotional. Katherine, very uncharacteristically, kissed her girlfriend on the cheek in comfort. Sarah smiled sadly at her, pulling her into a tight hug.

"PDA! PDA!" Romeo exclaimed, jokingly shielding his eyes.

"We all know what you do in the janitors closet _every day_, Romeo." Sarah said. "So fuck off."

Jack just sat there, stunned. _Davey's coming back._ His best friend, who just suddenly up and left five years ago, was coming back? Tomorrow?

His face must have reflected how he felt, because Sarah asked, "Jack? You good?"

"What?" He asked, pulling himself out of his own mind. "Yeah. I'm good."

Jack started biting his nails. _Davey's coming home._

XXX

"Davey Jacobs." Jack said, standing in the doorway of Davey's room, looking at him from behind.

"Jack Kelly." Davey said in the same tone, turning around to look at him. They held and mock-intense stare for a moment before they both burst out laughing. Jack ran into the room and pulled his long lost best friend into a tight embrace.

"I missed you so much, Jack!" Davey whispered into his ear.

"I missed you, too." Jack whispered. He was so glad to be back in his friend's warm embrace. He felt warm. He felt safe. He hadn't felt that way in a long time.

"How ya been?" Jack asked, pulling away. He walked across the room to sit on his bed. Davey sat down next to him, and Jack grabbed Davey's hand out of habit. Davey squeezed it.

"Uh... ok, I guess." Davey responded.

They sat in silence for a moment before Jack asked, "So, why'd ya come back?"

"Well..." Davey started. "My pa was moving to a new place, and I would've had to switch schools anyway, so I thought why not come home?"

"Well, I'm glad you did." Jack said, taking his hand out of Davey's and slinging his arm over the taller boy's shoulder.

There was another moment of silence before Jack stood up, grabbing Davey's hand and pulling him up.

"Come on." Jack said. "Let's unpack."

The boys walked over to Davey's suitcases and started unpacking his stuff. They laughed and talked for the entire afternoon, unpacking Davey's past five years.

XXX

Jack pulled Davey by his hand into the cafeteria at school the next day. By the time they got to the table, Davey was out of breath.

"Guys," Jack said as he pushed Davey down into a seat next to him. "This is Davey."

Davey scanned the people sitting at the table with him. Jack was next to him, Sarah was across from him, and then there was a girl and Davey recognized as Katherine, Sarah's girlfriend, next to Sarah, then five boys he didn't recognize.

Jack started gesturing around the table as he introduced people.

"You know Katherine." He started, pointing to the redhead next to Sarah. "She's a Senior. Then there's Albert." He pointed next to a red-headed boy. "Then Crutchie." He pointed to a boy with a crutch. "Romeo." A dark-haired boy. "And Race." A blond boy with curly hair. "They're all juniors, like us." Then he pointed to a shorter, black-haired boy with his arm around Race's waist. "And this is Spot. He's a senior."

"Hi, everyone. I'm Davey." He waved. Everyone waved back. Davey leaned over to Jack.

"Crutchie I get, but Race? Romeo? Spot?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"How did they get their nicknames?" Davey pondered.

"Race is the fastest kid on the track team." Jack explained. "Romeo? Well, that's just his name, but it fits him well. And Spot... I think Race's neck tells the story well enough."

Davey looked at Race's neck, where there were multiple dark hickeys.

"That's an... interesting nickname." Davey said.

"Yeah." Jack replied, taking a bite of his sandwich.

Davey surveyed the group he was sitting with for the rest of the lunch hour, while along having intermittent conversations with Jack. Race and Spot spent the entire hour making out. They didn't even eat. Albert and Crutchie played some strange hand game Davey didn't recognize. Sarah and Katherine spent the time talking and giggling in hushed tones. Romeo walked out of the cafeteria hand in hand with some girl fifteen minutes into the time and never came back. He could only assume what they were doing.

Just as the bell rang, Race said, "Hey, Davey. I'm hosting a movie night tomorrow night and everyone else is coming. You're invited if you want to come."

"Sure. Thanks." Davey smiled at the invitation. When he moved back here, he wasn't sure he would find good friends to hang out with. He never did in California. He was glad that he had friends here without even trying.


	3. The Room Where It Happens

Jack pulled up to Davey's house the next night in his car. He sat outside the familiar house and smiled for a few minutes before pulling out his phone to text Davey that he was here.

"Nice car." Davey commented as he climbed in. He had a silver Ford pickup.

"Thanks." Jack replied, turning on the radio and blasting music. He screamed along to each song that played on the radio, making Davey laugh. Eventually, Davey joined him.

When they got to Race's house, Jack walked into the house without even knocking.

"You aren't gonna knock?" Davey asked.

"Nah." Jack replied. "Race's folks know me well enough at this point that I don't have to."

Jack led Davey to the basement of the house, where Race hosted him movie nights. His family was pretty well off, so they had an in-home theater. There weren't any fancy theater seats or anything, just couches and stuff, but they had a huge TV and a popcorn machine.

When Jack and Davey entered the room, he saw that Race was already sitting on Spot's lap and they were making out on one of the couches in the back (But they were still wearing clothes, thank God. Some movie nights, they would be naked or just in boxers by the time the movie ended.), Albert had already gotten pretty close to wasted, Crutchie was making popcorn, and everyone else was sitting around, fighting about which movie to watch.

"Hey, guys!" Jack called as he strode in, Davey in tow. Everyone looked up and acknowledged their presence, except for Spot and Race, who just kept making out.

Jack grabbed Davey's hand and led him to an empty couch in the middle of the room. The two boys sat as close to each other as they could without actually sitting on each other's laps.

"Do you guys care what we watch?" Katherine asked the newcomers.

"Nah." Jack replied, and Davey shook his head.

"Breakfast Club it is, then." Sarah said, grabbing the remote from her girlfriend's hand and hitting play. Romeo jumped up from his place on the floor and turned the lights off, then sat back down

As the opening credits started, Jack called to the two lovers in the back. "Could you two stop sucking face and watch this movie?"

Race and Spot pulled away from each other, and both rolled their eyes. Jack, well, not just Jack, everyone, knew that they would watch maybe five minutes before going back to their previous activities, but it was still nice to have their attention for that long.

Albert stumbled around the room, passing out beers to everyone. When he got to Davey, he declined.

"What? Don't like beer?" Jack asked, opening his.

"I just don't drink." Davey stated simply.

"Oh, come on. Just one beer." Jack pushed, offering him the full one in his hands.

"...Fine." Davey caved, taking it from Jack and taking a sip, grimacing. Jack took another from Albert.

"Good job, baby brother." Sarah commented.

"Shut up, Sarah." Davey said, taking another sip. Crutchie started to pass out popcorn, which everyone excitedly accepted.

Once everyone was settled in, Davey grabbed Jack's hand. Jack noticed Katherine shoot him a pointed glance, but Jack shook his head. Katherine pulled her phone out. Jack's went off a few seconds later.

**Katherine: ** _u 2 together?_

**Jack: ** _no_

**Katherine: ** _I see definite hand holding_

**Jack: ** _were old friends. That's it_

**Katherine: ** _for now _

Jack looked up at Katherine, and she just winked, then put her phone away. Jack sighed.

"What is it?" Davey asked.

"Nothing." Jack responded, shoving a handful of popcorn into his mouth just as the opening credits were ending.

"What's this movie about?" Davey leaned to Jack and whispered.

"You've never seen The Breakfast Club before?" Jack exclaimed, probably a little too loudly, too, because Sarah picked up the remote and paused the movie. Romeo took the hint and turned the lights on.

"What?" Sarah asked. "You've never seen this movie?"

"No...?" Davey said, confused. "I didn't know it was such a big deal."

"You never watched it with your friends in California?" Sarah asked, and Davey got really quiet, looking at the floor.

"...No." He finally said.

"Ok, well, you're watching it now, so I guess that's ok." Sarah huffed, pressing play on the movie. Romeo turned the lights back off.

Jack turned to Davey, who still seemed to be in a sad state.

"You ok?" Jack whispered to the boy next to him.

"Yeah. Fine." Davey responded, looking up at the screen. Jack squeezed his hand, and Davey shot him a grateful smile and repeated the gesture before turning his full focus on the screen in front of him.

XXX

As Davey climbed into Jack's car, Jack said, "So, you survived your first movie night. I wasn't sure you were gonna make it outta there."

"Me either." Davey laughed.

"The way Sarah kept assaulting you?" Jack laughed, turning the keys in the ignition. Davey rested his hand on the console after putting his seatbelt on, and Jack grabbed it. Davey was comforted by his best friends touch. He missed him so much while he was in California. Yeah, he missed Sarah, Les, and his mom, but he missed Jack most of all.

"I missed you so much while I was gone." He breathed.

"Me too." Jack agreed. "Me too."

They rode in silence back to Davey's house. When they got there, he was reluctant to get out of the car.

"Well... I guess I should be going." He finally said, squeezing Jack's hand.

Just as he was about to open the car door, Jack said, "Wait."

"What?" Davey asked.

"Stay over at my house." He offered. "I'm sure my adopted mom will be ok with it."

"Adopted mom?" Davey asked, confused. When he left at the end of fifth grade, Jack's mom was alive and well.

"Y-yeah..." Jack stuttered. "My mom got into drugs right before you left, but she did a good job of hiding it. I... I found her dead in her bed in January during sixth grade. I was bumped around the foster system for a year and a half or so until I found my adopted mom, Medda. I was in her house for about a year before she adopted me. She's really nice. She'll never be my mom, but she's the best adopted mom a guy could ask for."

"Aww. I'm so sorry, Jack." Davey said, squeezing his hand. "I'm definitely staying over. Tomorrow's Saturday, so I'm sure my Mom'll be cool with it."

"Awesome." Jack smiled, putting the car back in drive, and heading towards his home.


	4. You're My Home

Davey opened the car door when they arrived at Jack's house. It was a nice, quaint house, good for a family of two.

As they approached the house, Jack grabbed Davey's hand and squeezed. He smiled as they entered the house.

"Medda? You here?" Jack called into the house. After a few moments with no response, Jack shrugged. "She's probably at work."

"What does she do?" Davey asked.

"She's in _Hamilton_." Jack explained.

"On Broadway?" Davey asked, his eyes almost popping out of his head.

"Yep." Jack replied, leading them up the stairs.

"Who does she play?" He asked as Jack pulled him into his room.

"She's a swing." Jack explained.

"A what?" Davey asked. He's never really followed theater.

"She only performs when someone calls in sick, so it's not every night." Jack explained, and they sat down next to each other on his bed. Jack picked up a remote from the nightstand next to him and clicked on the TV hanging across from the bed.

Davey took this time to survey the room around him. It was painted dark blue, and they were sitting on the queen-sized bed against the middle of the wall with a decent sized TV across from it. There was a dresser next to a closet, a desk in front of a window, and there were framed drawings hung up all over the room. They were really good.

Davey jumped up off the bed and got up close to the drawings, looking at them all closely.

"Did you draw these?" He asked the boy still sitting on the bed.

"What? Oh. Yeah." Jack responded, not pulling his focus from the TV.

"Jack... These are amazing." Davey commented.

"Eh." Jack shrugged.

"Don't kid yourself." Davey said, going to sit next to Jack again on the bed. He grabbed the latter's hand, squeezing it, which pulled Jack's focus back to him. "They're really are good, Jack."

"Yeah, I guess." Jack said, clearly a little embarrassed. "Do ya want to watch somthing?"

"I guess." Davey replied, looking at the screen. Jack had his Nexflix account up on the screen, looking through stuff to watch.

"When did you get into drawing? I don't remember you doing that much before I left." Davey pushed, unable to let the topic go.

"Uh... probably after my mom died." Jack explained, pulling his focus from the TV to look at the boy he was sitting next to. "I needed somthing to take my mind off it."

"Yeah." Davey said, looking back at the TV. "How about we get somthing to eat?"

"Sure." Jack said, hopping off the bed. He pulled Davey up using the hand of his he was still gripping.

Jack led him down the stairs and to the kitchen. He let go of his hand and went over to the pantry, and pulled out a few bags of chips, a box of cookies, and a huge bag of candy.

"Geez, Jack." Davey said, surveying the food in front of him. "Got enough junk food here?"

"Fine." Jack huffed, grabbing an apple from the counter, and adding it to the pile of food. "Happy?"

"Yeah. Sure." Davey laughed, shaking his head at the singular apple that would probably get left in the kitchen anyway.

"Ready?" Jack asked, picking up all the food and trying to keep all of it from falling out of his arms.

"I can take some." Davey offered, trying to take somthing out of Jack's arms.

"Hey. I got it." Jack said, passing Davey and going towards the stairs. Davey picked the abandoned apple up off the table.

They walked back to the stairs, heading back to Jack's room. Jack spread all the food out on his bed, and he and Davey both sat back down. Jack grabbed Davey's hand again as he put an entire giant chocolate chip cookie in his mouth at once.

"That's disgusting." Davey laughed as he watched this event unfold in front of him.

"Shuddup." Jack laughed around the cookie in his mouth, making Davey laugh even harder. Davey picked up the remote off the bed in front of him, scrolling through Jack's Netflix list.

"Geez, Jack. The Walking Dead? How do you watch that show?" Davey asked. He looked through and saw he had watched the entire thing, and was in the middle of watching it again.

"It ain't for the faint of heart." He replied, then adding, "Or the weak of stomach." He grabbed another cookie and shoved it in his mouth.

"I'm sure." Davey replied, passing it by. He's seen pictures of the zombies from that show online. They were truly disgusting.

"Cookie?" Jack asked, holding one up.

"I'm fine."

Davey turned his attention back to the TV, but then the cookie took over his vision.

"You know you want it." Jack said, waving the cookie in front of his face.

"Fine." Davey said, putting the remote down and ripping the cookie out of Jack's hand.

"Now put the whole thing in your mouth." Jack instructed.

"No. No way." Davey shook his head. There was absolutely no way he was doing that.

"Do it. Do it. Do it." Jack chanted.

"You know what? Fine. I'll do it." Davey said, quickly shoving the cookie in his mouth, and Jack cheered. It took all Davey's courage not to laugh and spit the cookie out.

"Happy?" Davey asked after he swallowed.

"Very. Now," Jack said, picking the remote up with his free hand. "You are going to watch this show, and you are going to like it." Jack scrolled back to The Walking Dead and clicked play on season one, episode one.

"Oh, come on, Jack, no." Davey said, trying to wrestle the remote out of his friend's hand.

"Just watch." Jack said, squeezing Davey's hand, and he sighed. Jack leaned back against the headboard, and Davey leaned back and layed his head on Jack's shoulder.

Davey had to admit, no matter how disgusting the zombies were, the show was actually pretty good.

XXX

A few hours later, Davey felt his eyes starting to close. He laid his head on Jack's chest, and fell asleep.

XXX

Jack blinked his eyes open and saw that it was still dark out. He looked at his phone and saw that it was only one thirty in the morning. He noticed that the TV was off, there was no food on the bed, and there was a blanket over him. He immediately knew Medda came in late last night and cleaned up since he knew neither him nor Davey did it. He looked down to see Davey's sleeping head was resting on his chest. Jack smiled, put his arm around Davey's shoulder and pulled his friend close, then went back to sleep.


	5. Can We Start Again, Please?

Davey woke up the next morning to an empty bed and the smell of pancakes. He crawled out of Jack's bed and down the stairs, towards the kitchen. When he walked in, he saw Jack shoveling huge pieces of pancake drenched in syrup into his mouth.

"Morning, Davey." Jack said around his food. Davey just smiled and laughed.

"Nice to meet you Davey." A woman at the stove, flipping pancakes, said. She was a talker black woman in a pink nightgown. "I'm Medda, Jack's adoptive mom. Nice to meet you." She smiled widely.

"Nice to meet you, too." Davey said respectfully.

"Sit. I'll have pancakes for you in a minute." She instructed, and Davey did as he was told. He sat next to Jack at the table, their thighs touching under it. Jack pulled his focus away from his pancakes for a few seconds to smile at him before going back to eating.

Medda put a plate of giant steaming hot pancakes in front of him, and Davey thanked her while pouring syrup on them.

Medda and Jack exchanged a look before she turned off the stove and walked out.

"So... did you like the show last night?" Jack asked.

"It was a lot better than I thought it would be." Davey replied, taking a bite of the pancakes and moaning. "These are fucking amazing."

"I know." Jack replied. "Medda makes them from scratch."

"I can tell." Davey moaned, shoving more of the pancake into his mouth.

"I told you that you would like it." Jack said, turning the conversation back to The Walking Dead.

"I'm surprised I kept all that food down. It was so gross." Davey laughed.

"I never thought it was that bad." Jack said, obviously trying to prove a point.

"Oh, come on." Davey called him out. "There has to be at least one point where you thought you were going to lose your lunch."

Jack made an exaggeration of thinking about it, and then shook his head.

"Not once?" Davey confirmed skeptically, and Jack shook his head again.

The boys finished eating in silence. After he had eaten his pancakes, Davey grabbed his phone out his pocket to check his messages.

"Damn. It's dead." Davey complained.

"What kind of phone do you have?" Jack asked.

"iPhone." Davey replied.

"Here. I'll plug it in for you." Jack said, holding his hand out. Davey put it in the offered hand, then Jack got up and walked to a charger on the counter and plugged it in. Then, Jack walked back to sit next to Davey. He grabbed the taller boy's hand.

Davey and Jack sat next to each other in the kitchen in silence, waiting for Davey's phone to turn back on. As soon as it lit up, Davey let go of Jack's hand and hopped out of his seat at the table and ran over to check his phone.

"Oh, shit." He said as he read through the messages. There were ten from his mom.

**Mom: ** _What time did you say you were getting home again?_

**Mom: ** _Do you need me to pick you up?_

**Mom: ** _the movie has to be over by now_

**Mom: ** _where are you?_

**Mom: ** _did you stay the night?_

**Mom: ** _were getting really worried_

**Mom: ** _this isn't like you, David_

**Mom: ** _you are in so much trouble, David_

**Mom: ** _I don't care if your, drunk, or high, or whatever, David. Just please come home_

**Mom: ** _if you're not home by noon tomorrow I'm calling the police and reporting you as a missing person_

"What?" Jack asked as Davey scrolled through the texts.

"I forgot to tell my mom I was sleeping over here, and now she's freaking out." Davey explained, quickly pressing the 'call' button on his Mom's contact. She picked up before the first ring was over.

"David?" She asked.

"Hi, mom. I'm so sorry," he apologized.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

"I'm fine," He responded. "I ended up staying the night at Jack's, then I forgot to text you, and then my phone died."

"I'm just so glad you're ok." She sighed, then her voice turned hard again. "Now get your ass home."

"I'm on my way." Davey responded.

Davey hung up the phone, then turned to Jack. "I've gotta get home."

"Do you need a ride?" He asked, moving to stand from his seat at the table.

"Yeah, that would be great." Davey answered, removing his phone from the charger.

"Just let me get dressed." Jack said, running to the stairs, then doubled back. "Come with me. I'll give you some clean clothes."

"I'm fine." Davey replied.

"No, come on." Jack said, grabbing Davey's hand and leading him up the stairs and towards his room. Davey rolled his eyes.

When they got there, Jack started searching through his dresser, then picked out two wrinkled shirts and pairs of pants, and threw one of each at Davey.

Jack took his dirty T-shirt and pants from the day before off in front of Davey, and he felt a blush start to creep up his cheeks.

_What the hell? _He thought to himself. _Why am I blushing? It's not like I haven't seen this before. But we were so young..._

Jack looked up at him. "Dude, your staring."

"Right. Sorry." Davey replied, starting to change himself. He may have imagined it, but he swore he saw a faint blush on Jack's cheeks too.

XXX

When Davey walked into his house, Les practically attacked him with a hug.

"Davey! Your home!" He yelled. Davey lifted his little brother off the floor and into his arms.

"Yeah. I am, buddy." Davey said into the smaller boy's hair. Sarah and his mom walked into the foyer, and Davey put Les back on the floor. Les, satisfied, ran up the stairs to his room.

"What the hell?" Sarah asked, shoving Davey as soon as Les was out of earshot. "You had us worried sick."

"You're not my mom, Sarah." Davey moped.

"She's not. But I am. And she's right." Davey's mom said. "Never do that again." She walked over to her son and put her hands on his face. "I just got you back. I don't want to lose you again."

"I promise I won't do that again, mom." Davey said, pulling her into a hug. "I promise."


	6. Enough is Enough

Jack smiled as he saw Davey walk up to the lunch table and sit down next to him. He grabbed his friend's hand under the table as he took a bite of his sandwich.

"Did you have fun at movie night, Davey?" Crutchie asked.

"Yeah. I did." Davey smiled and squeezed Jack's hand under the table.

Sarah murmured somthing to Katherine across the table and shot quick glances at Jack and Davey, which made the two girls laugh.

"What?" Jack asked.

"Nothing." Sarah smiled. Jack shot a knowing glance at Katherine, who picked up her phone. Jack, knowing what she was up to, grabbed his.

**Jack: ** _u know this is rlly getting old_

**Katherine: ** _What did u and Davey do at ur house?_

**Jack: ** _watched tv and slept_

**Katherine: ** _together?_

Jack felt a faint blush creep up his cheeks as he read the last text.

_Why the hell am I blushing? _He thought to himself.

**Jack: ** _no_

Katherine grabbed Sarah's attention and showed her the text. Sarah grabbed the phone and started typing.

**Katherine: ** _yeah right_

**Jack: ** _Shut up Sarah_

Jack put his phone in his pocket, scowling at Sarah and Katherine, who were just giggling hysterically.

Davey, oblivious, turned to Jack. "What math class do you take?"

"Algebra two." Jack answered, and Davey frowned, then called around the table.

"Is anyone here in calc?" He asked. Jack noticed the homework spread out in front of Davey.

"I am." Spot said around Race's face. He pushed Race away to talk to Davey, and Race whined. Davey dropped Jack's hand and turned to Spot.

"Oh, relax, Race. You'll survive ten seconds without being glued to your boyfriend." Jack laughed.

"Oh, fuck off." Race said, and Romeo, finally making an appearance at the table, slid into a seat next to him.

"I'll take over for Spot." Swollen-lipped Romeo said. Race just shoved him off the seat, causing everyone at the table to laugh, except Spot and Davey, who were too engrossed in the homework Davey was having trouble with to notice. Race just sat there with a grumpy expression on his face, which made everyone laugh even harder.

Romeo got back up and sat back down next to Albert, who was drinking what had to be vodka out of a water bottle, by the way he was acting. Jack just shook his head and pulled a paper bag out of his backpack and began to eat his sad lunch when Morris Delancey walked up to their table with Oscar in tow.

"What do you want, Morris?" Jack demanded, standing up from where he was sitting.

"I just came to visit Katherine." He said, putting his hands on her shoulders from behind, and squeezing. She cringed when he did, and she looked close to tears. "I wanted to let her know that I miss her."

"Get off of her." Sarah said, standing up and pushing Morris away. He just shoved Sarah harder, and she fell back into her seat. As Sarah went to comfort her still very shaken up girlfriend, Jack walked over to Morris.

"Get out of here." Jack threatened.

"Yeah, or what?" Morris asked. "Your gonna go crying to Katherine's daddy?"

Jack glanced back at the table, and everyone's eyes were on him and Morris.

"You never lay your hands on a girl." Jack said. "Ever."

"Yeah, well that says nothing about you." Morris said, and geared up to punch Jack in the face. Jack struck Morris before he could lay a hand on him.

"What is going on here?" Mr. Pulitzer, the school principal, and Katherine's father, demanded as he walked over to their table.

"I-I don't know, Mr. Pulitzer. Jack just punched me." Morris said with a look of mock innocence in his voice.

"Is that so?" Mr. Pulitzer sneered, and Morris and Oscar both nodded. "Well then, detention for you after school today, Mr. Kelly. Again."

As he turned and walked away, the Delancey brothers turned and sneered at Jack, then went to go sit at their table. Jack sat back down next to Davey, who was confused as ever.

"What was that?" Davey asked, looking at Sarah, Who was still comforting Katherine. Tears were starting to fall down the red-haired girls face.

"Umm..." Jack tried, not knowing how to explain this. "Morris... he's... Katherine's abusive ex-boyfriend."

"What?" Davey demanded, and Jack shushed him.

"We're the only people who know about it, so keep it quiet." Jack said, gesturing to the people around the table. Most of them were either eating their lunches in silence or speaking in hushed tones.

"What happened?" Davey whispered.

"She started dating Morris her freshman year." Jack started. "She said he was nice and sweet... until summer came. He started hitting her... and forcing her to... well... you know... Anyway, she didn't leave him because she knew he would hurt her even more if she did. She didn't even tell anyone until the summer after her sophomore year when she let it slip to us at when she got drunk at a party. Then, finally, at the beginning of last year, we convinced her to end things with him, and she did."

"And who was that guy who gave you detention?" Davey asked.

"The principal, Mr. Pulitzer. He's... also Kath's father." Jack continued.

"If he's her father... then why did he take Morris's side?" Davey asked.

"Becuase he doesn't know." Jack whispered. "He knows that they dated, and he knows they ended things, but... she never told him about the abuse."

"I felt so bad." Davey said, looking at Katherine.

"Yeah. Me too." Jack said. "Me too."

XXX

After school that day, Davey was walking through the hallway at his house to his room, when he noticed Sarah's door was slightly cracked. He peeked inside to see Katherine, crying, in Sarah's arms.

Davey knocked on the door.

"Come in." Sarah called, and Davey pushed the door open. As he did, he saw Katherine wipe her eyes and sit up.

"Hey, Kath." Davey said, going to next to her on the bed. "Jack told me about... Morris, and I just wanted to apologize."

"For what?" She asked. Sarah shot him a cautiously skeptical look, but Davey ignored it.

"For what he did to you." Davey clarified. "He has no right to put you through that."

"Thanks, Davey." She smiled sadly, pulling him in for a hug. From over Katherine's shoulder, Davey saw Sarah shoot him a grateful smile, and Davey returned it. He knew he had to be there for Katherine, even though no one was there for him when this happened to him in California.


	7. Never Have I Ever

That Friday night, everyone was sitting in a circle in Jack's basement, beers in hand. Jack and Davey were sitting next to each other, hand in hand. Some of the group (Albert) were already drunk, but Jack was still sober.

"Does everyone know the rules to 'Never Have I Ever'?" Sarah asked, surveying the room. Crutchie and Davey shook their heads. "Ok, so..." She started. "We go around the circle and everyone says somthing they haven't done. If you have done it, you drink. If you haven't, you don't." She explained. "Make sense?"

"Yep." Crutchie said, and Davey nodded.

"Never have I ever..." Sarah started. "Kissed a guy." Everyone except Albert and Crutchie took a drink. Jack thought Davey didn't drink, but what he didn't know at that time was that he did.

"Ok, my turn." Katherine said. "Never have I ever punched someone." Jack, Albert, Spot, and Race all took a drink, and everyone turned to Romeo.

"Oh, come on, Romeo. We've seen you punch someone with our own eyes." Race said, and Romeo rolled his eyes and took a drink.

Albert was next. "Never have I ever killed someone." Everyone just laughed and rolled their eyes, but no one drank.

"How drunk are you, dude?" Jack, who was sitting next to Albert, asked.

"Pretty drunk." Albert laughed, and Jack rolled his eyes again.

"Ok." Jack said. "Never have I ever been in love." Spot, Race, Sarah, and Katherine all drank. Katherine and Sarah both shot pissed off looks at Jack, who just discreetly flipped them off.

"Never have I ever done it in a closet." Davey said, looking around the circle as Spot, Race, and Romeo drank. Sarah and Katherine blushed.

"Oh, come on, girls. We've all heard the sounds at school." Race laughed.

"Fuck off." Katherine laughed as both girls drank.

Crutchie waited until the room was quiet before taking his turn. "Never have I ever gotten high." Everyone else around the room took a drink, except for Davey.

"Never have I ever kissed a girl." Race declared confidently at his turn. Jack, Katherine, Sarah, Albert, Romeo, and Crutchie all drank.

"Never have I ever had sex with more than one person in a week." Spot said next, and Romeo rolled his eyes and drank.

"Finally, it's my turn." Romeo said. "Never have I ever been rejected." Everyone else rolled their eyes and drank.

Now it was Sarah's turn again. "Never have I ever held hands with someone who I wasn't dating." Davey and Jack, still holding hands, rolled their eyes and drank. Jack felt a faint blush creep down his cheeks to his neck.

"Never have I ever gone to a bar." Katherine said. Jack, Albert, Spot, Race, and Romeo all drank.

"Never have I ever..." Albert slurred, then passed out on the floor.

"Fuck." Jack said, dropping Davey's hand and crawling over to where Albert was laying on the floor. He heard the drunk boy breathing, so he wasn't very worried. Everyone else was snickering as Jack lifted Albert off the floor bridal style and laying him on the couch against the wall. Jack went to sit back down next to Davey, and he grabbed the taller boy's hand. Sarah and Katherine both rolled their eyes at the gesture.

"Has this happened before?" Davey asked, oblivious to his sister and her girlfriend's antics.

"Yeah." Race replied.

"Too many times to count." Sarah added.

"Whatever. Let's get back to the game." Jack said. "Never have I ever passed out drunk." Everyone laughed, but no one drank.

"Ok." Davey said. "Never have I ever gotten a hickey." Everyone shot confused looks at Davey, then drank.

"Never have I ever broken cerfew." Crutchie said, and everyone but Davey drank.

"Never have I ever gotten an 'A' in math." Race declared proudly, and Davey, Spot, Crutchie, Katherine, and Sarah all rolled their eyes and drank. Jack blushed a little. Math was never his strong suit.

"Never have I ever slept in a bed with a girl." Spot said, and Katherine and Sarah both drank.

Romeo took a second to think. "Never have I ever been in the hospital." Romeo looked around as everyone drank.

It was silent for a moment before Sarah said, "Never have I ever liked spicy foods."

"Lame." Race called as everyone but Jack and Davey drank.

"Never have I ever broken my nose." Katherine said, and Spot, Jack, Davey, Race, Crutchie, and Romeo all drank.

"Why don't you tell us how you broke your nose, Romeo?" Jack teased, and Romeo blushed beet red.

"I was about to do it with this girl... when I accidentally called her a whore... and she punched me and broke my nose." Romeo explained, getting redder and redder as he went on.

Everyone around the room burst out laughing, and Jack waited for everyone to calm down before continuing.

"Never have I ever smoked a cigar." Jack said, and everyone looked expectantly at Race as he rolled his eyes and drank.

A few people reached into the middle for new beers as Davey started. "Never have I ever seen a girl naked." Jack was surprised to hear this one, but he, as well as Sarah, Katherine, Crutchie, and Romeo, drank.

"Never have I ever failed an assignment in school." Crutchie said, and everyone but Davey, Katherine, and Sarah drank. Figures. The Jacob's kids had a natural aptitude for academics, and Pulitzer kept Katherine on a pretty tight leash. If she got anything below an A-, she wasn't even allowed out of the house. He was such a bitch.

The room was silent for a moment while everyone waited for the next person to go. Everyone looked at Race, who was kissing, well, sucking, Spot's neck, and had his hand down his boyfriend's pants.

Sarah sneaked right up next to Race's ear. Race and Spot didn't even notice.

"Race!" She screamed, and both Race and Spot jumped out of their skin.

Race pulled his hand out of Spot's pants, a deep red blush forming over both the boy's faces. Jack was having a hard time containing his laughter.

"Your turn." Sarah coaxed forcefully.

"Uh..." Race tried. "Never have I ever had less than three cups of coffee a day since I was fifteen."

"Oh my god." Katherine said. Jack looked around the circle, and no one drank, Thank god. "That's not healthy."

"You're not healthy." Race countered, which earned a laugh from everyone around the circle.

"Never have I ever..." Spot continued. "Worn makeup." Katherine, Sarah, and Davey all drank.

"Davey, You've worn makeup?" Jack asked suggestively.

"Sarah did it on me when I was little." Davey said, blushing.

"I loved to do makeovers, and he was my only subject." Sarah explained with a shrug.

"Subject?" Katherine asked.

"Oh, whatever. Romeo, your turn." Sarah finished.

"Never have I ever paid attention to this game." Romeo declared, and since everyone was at least a little drunk at this point, everyone around the circle burst out laughing.


	8. All By Myself

The morning after their Never Have I Ever game, Davey found himself in his bed with his knees against his chest, tracing an old cigarette burn on his palm with his finger and crying.

Sarah must have heard him from the hallway, because she knocked on the door and walked in without waiting for a response.

"Hey, are you ok?" She asked, sitting next to him on the bed.

"Uh... yeah." Davey replied, quickly hiding the burn on his hand and wiping the tears away. "I've just never been hungover before. And I couldn't sleep last night. I'm just so drained." It wasn't totally a lie. The only time he had ever drank before last night was at Race's movie night, and he only had two or three sips of beer. Last night, he drank a bottle and a half.

"That sucks." Sarah smiled at him. "I remember the first time I was hungover. I had gotten super drunk at a party, and I felt like I was going to die the next day."

Davey let out a small laughed, still keeping his knees close to his chest.

"I have plans with Kath, but if you want me to stick around..." Sarah tried.

"No, no, I'm fine." Davey said. "I was going to call Jack, anyways."

"Ok." She smiled, putting her hand on her brother's shoulder and giving a comforting squeeze before standing up. "Feel better."

"I will." Davey smiled sadly. Sarah nodded, and walked out of the room, leaving the door cracked behind her.

As soon as she was gone, Davey went back to looking at the scar on his palm. It was the only scar Davey had from... _before_... but it was a cruel reminder of what was.

As Davey started to tear up, he looked at his phone. He knew he should call Jack, be around people, but he just needed to be alone right now.

Davey felt a sharp pain in his head, and realized the hangover was starting to hit. He held his head in his hands for a minute, listening to the noises around the house. He heard Sarah rustling around in her room and walk down the stairs and out the door, and he knew he was alone in the house. His mom went to work, and Les had a sleepover at a friends house the night before, and he was going to be there most of the day. Davey decided to get up and go down to the kitchen.

He got a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water at the sink, then drank the whole thing before filling it again. He then went to the pantry and pulled out two pieces of bread and popped them in the toaster. Normally he would've made eggs, too, but he didn't trust himself around an open flame right now. And since their house had a gas stovetop, he knew he probably shouldn't be cooking anything.

Davey sat down at the kitchen table with his toast, and stared at his burn as he ate. He just wished the damn thing wasn't there, just so he wouldn't have that connection to his past.

After he finished his toast, Davey walked back up to his room and layed down in his bed. He spent the rest of the day alternating between sleeping and crying.

XXX

As the credits rolled on the movie Jack was watching at the theater, he turned to Crutchie.

"That was awesome." He said at the same time as Crutchie, and they both laughed as they stood up from their seats and started to walk out to the exit of the theater.

Jack pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned it on to see three texts and two missed calls from Sarah.

**Sarah: ** _Did Davey ever get a hold of you_

**Sarah: ** _Uh... Jack?_

**Sarah: ** _seriously dude wtf_

"What is it?" Crutchie asked. Jack's face must have mirrored his inner concern.

Jack ignored Crutchie's question and called Sarah.

"Where the hell have you been?" Sarah demanded when she answered the phone.

"I'm sorry!" Jack exclaimed. "I was seeing a movie with Crutchie. I had to turn my phone off."

"I've been texting you for hours!" Sarah exclaimed dramatically, and Jack could hear Katherine's voice in the background, but he couldn't make out what she was saying.

"Why should I have heard from Davey?" Jack interrupted.

"I talked to him this morning." Sarah started. "He was crying in his room, but he just said it was because of his hangover. I offered to stay with him, but he said he was going to call you."

"Oh." Jack said.

"So you really haven't heard from him?" Sarah asked.

"No." Jack said, shaking his head.

"Ugh." Sarah said, then hung up the phone.

"What was that all about?" Crutchie asked.

"I'll tell you in the car." Jack replied, walking towards the exit. "We're going to Davey's house."

XXX

Jack had dropped Crutchie off at his apartment on the way to Davey's - he had a test he needed to study for. Jack should be studying for that same test, but he needed to be there for Davey first.

As Jack pulled up to Davey's house, he looked at all the windows from his car. It looked like no one was home, but he was going to try anyway.

Jack turned his car off and hopped out, then walked up to the front door. He knocked, and waited for about thirty seconds before knocking again. When no response came, he tried the doorknob. The door was locked.

Jack took a moment to think about what he should do.

He pulled his phone and tried to call Davey, but it went straight to voice mail. When he tried again, he got the same result. He again took a moment to think. He decided that he needed to know if Davey was there, and if he was ok. He needed to climb.

Jack walked over to the porch and jumped up onto the fence surrounding it. He then grabbed the edge of the roof and pulled himself up. He pushed himself up onto the slanted roof above the porch and walked across to Davey's window. Jack looked in to see a crying Davey in his bed. Jack knocked on the window, and the boy inside the house looked up, and was confused when he saw Jack. He wiped his eyes, then got off his bed and opened the window to let the boy in.

"Jack, why the hell are you on the roof?" Davey asked as Jack climbed in the window.

"Sarah kept calling me and asking me if I heard from you." Jack explained. "I needed to make sure you were ok."

"Well, I am, so you can go." Davey dismissed, turning away from his friend.

"I'm not leaving, Dave. You're clearly not ok." Jack said to the crying boy, walking up behind him and putting his hand on his shoulder. Davey turned around to face Jack, and he grabbed the shorter boy's hand, smiling weakly. Jack slowly led Davey to the bed, where Davey just laid in Jack's lap.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." Davey said. "Can we just sit here?"

"Of course." Jack said, running his hand through his friend's hair comfortingly. "Of course."

Neither of the boys knew this at the time, but Sarah and Katherine had returned while the boys were laying in the bed like this, and they saw the two through the crack in the door. The girls just exchanged a look and shook their heads before returning to Sarah's room.


	9. Damage Case

Jack led Davey into school on Monday and walked him to his homeroom. Davey was still learning the school, so it was helpful there, but he really needed the emotional support. He didn't tell Jack about what happened _before..._ but he knew he needed someone to help him through the day.

Davey, uncharacteristically, couldn't focus on his morning classes. He hadn't done much on Sunday, except lay around with Jack on the couch and watch TV. It's just what he needed. He pretended he didn't see the sideways glances Sarah, and eventually, Katherine when she came over, have the two boys while they were in each other's arms on the couch, but he did. He just ignored them. He needed a day to just chill with his best friend without anyone interrupting.

Once Davey got to lunch, he sat closer to Jack than normal. Jack grabbed the boy's hand under the table, and Davey leaned his head on his friend's shoulder. He didn't even eat lunch.

About three-quarters of the way into the lunch hour, Jack leaned down and whispered to him, "Do you have anything to eat? Do you want my lunch?"

"No, you eat it." I replied.

"I wasn't gonna eat it anyway." Jack explained, trying to hand Davey his sandwich. Davey just pushed it away.

"I'm ok." Davey insisted.

"Are you sure? Cuz you seem a little off." Jack tried again, keeping his voice calm.

"Jack, I said I'm fine." Davey practically yelled, jumping up from his seat and stalking out of He cafeteria and down the hall to the bathroom. He walked into one of the stalls and locked himself in, then closed the toilet lid and sat down.

A few minutes later, the door opened and someone walked in.

"Dave? You in here?" Jack called. Davey just pulled his feet up off the floor so Jack wouldn't see them and started silently crying.

"Davey, I can hear you breathing." Jack said, walking up to his stall and pushing on the door. When it didn't open, Jack knocked. "Come on. Let me in."

"No." Davey replied, trying to push his tears away.

"Seriously, Davey, let me in. Somethings going on with you and I just wanna help." Jack insisted. Davey sighed.

"Alright, fine" Jack decided. "If you're not opening the door, I'm coming under."

"Jack, don't..." The boy in the stall tried, but Jack appeared under the door before he could finish. He wriggled himself under the door and stood up. Davey hated to admit it, but it made him laugh.

"Ok, now tell me what's wrong." Jack said, brushing the dirt off his clothes.

"That's what happens when you crawl around on the bathroom floor at school." Davey joked, dodging the other boy's question.

"Come on. Talk to me." Jack insisted. "And don't say..."

"It's nothing." Davey cut him off.

"Don't give me that crap." Jack said, crouching down in front of the other boy on the floor and grabbing his hands. "We're not leaving this stall until you tell me what's wrong, so you'd better start talking if you don't want to be late to class."

"Just drop it, Jack." Davey whined.

"Please just tell me." Jack whispered.

Davey looked at his and Jack's intertwined fingers for a moment. Then, he took his hand out of Jack's and opened it to show him my palm. He must have known exactly what the scar was, because he took the taller boy's hand in his and traced the scar with his thumb.

"Cigarette?" Jack looked up at Davey and asked, and he nodded. "Who gave you this?"

"My... my dad." Davey admitted. It almost felt good to say it. He had never said it out loud before.

"Your dad?" Jack asked, confused.

"Y-yeah." Davey studdered. "After the divorce, he seemed so sad. That's why I went with him. Then he fell into this... depression." I looked up at Jack, who was giving me a reassuring smile, so I went on. "He started drinking. All the time, drinking. Then... the hitting started." He felt tears start to well up in his eyes. Jack shot him a sympathetic look, so he continued. "It was only when he was drunk... at first. Then it was all the time." Tears started falling down Davey's face, and Jack wiped them away. "I didn't lie when I said he moved. He was moving. The night before the trucks came... I took all the money I had saved up and bought a plane ticket home." Davey was practically sobbing. Jack stood up and pulled him up off the toilet seat and into a hug. Davey gratefully fell into his arms.

"It's all gonna be ok." Jack whispered into Davey's ear. "I promise you. I'm here. You're ok."

The two boys stood there in that bathroom stall until the bell signaling the end of lunch rang. Jack unlocked the stall and slung his arm over Davey's shoulder, then started leading Davey towards the door.

"Where are we going?" Davey asked.

"I'm taking you home." Jack explained quietly as he led them out the door and back towards the cafeteria to get their things.

"No, I..." Davey tried, but Jack cut him off.

"I'm not giving you an option." Jack said. "Your in no condition to do school right now. We're going home."

"We can't go to my house. My Mom'll send me back if she sees me." Davey said.

"Medda's in rehearsal today. I'll take you to my place." Jack said as they walked into the cafeteria.

Davey didn't really pay attention as Jack collected their things from the cafeteria floor, and then walked them to the office and signed them out. By that point, they were holding hands. Jack led Davey to his car, then drove them both to Medda's house.

"Thank you for this." Davey smiled as they walked up to the house, hand in hand.

"No problem." Jack smiled sweetly at him. "Any time."


	10. All Eyez On Me

Race decided to host another movie night a few days after Jack had to take Davey home from school, and the two boys decided to grab some dinner beforehand.

"Where do you want to go?" Jack asked Davey when he picked him up at his house.

"I don't care." Davey replied. "Somewhere where they have food."

"I'm sure that won't be hard to find." Jack laughed as he started to pull out of the Jacobs' driveway. Jack was going to reach for the other boy's hand when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Davey pull his phone out of pocket.

"Do you know any good places around here?" He asked. "I'm sure things have changed since I moved back."

"Uh..." Jack tried to think. He didn't go out to eat much. Medda cooked on nights she was home, and he just ordered pizza when she was performing. "I really don't know."

"Ok, then..." Davey trailed off, scrolling through something Jack couldn't make out on his phone. "There's an Italian place nearby, or a Japanese place..."

"I don't know, those all seem to fancy for me." Jack laughed, and Davey looked up and joined him before turning back to his phone. "Then there's this fifties diner, or a Mexican place..."

"Either sounds good to me." Jack said, and groaned when the traffic started to pick up. "Which one's closer?"

"The diner." Davey replied.

"Then we should probably go there if we want to make it to Race's on time." Jack said.

"Sounds good to me." Davey said.

Jack put the diner in his phone GPS and saw that it was twenty minutes away. They would probably miss the first half of the movie, but it was fine. Whatever they were watching, Jack had probably already seen it anyway, or he probably wouldn't care.

Davey put his phone back in his pocket, then reached across the console and grabbed Jack's hand. Jack felt his friend's warmth spread through him, and relished in it.

The two boys spent the rest of the ride silently listening to the shitty pop music on the radio that neither of them wanted to change. When they finally got to the diner, Jack parked the car and both boys got out and headed for the door.

"Just two?" The hostess asked, and both Jack and Davey nodded. "Ok, follow me." She smiled, picking up two menus and leading them towards the back of the restaurant.

Once they were seated at a booth in the back, Jack took a look around. He felt like he had stepped into the set of a movie or something. All of the waitresses were wearing poodle skirts with actual pictures of poodles on them, and there were neon lights and black and white tiles everywhere, and pictures of vintage cars in the walls. He looked at the menu, and apparently the diner was famous for their milkshakes. Jack opened it up and saw a whole page just listing like, one hundred crazy flavors.

"I might just get a milkshake." Jack said. "These look really good."

"Yeah, me too." Davey smiled.

The boys both got huge milkshakes. Jack decided on gummy worm explosion, which Davey said he thought was disgusting, and the latter got plain chocolate, which Jack said was boring. The two laughed and talked as they drank their milkshakes, holding hands on top of the table, and they both felt disgustingly full as they walk back out to Jack's car. The milkshakes were thirty-two ounces, which Davey pointed out was the size of the human stomach. When they got into the car, they noticed that Race's movie night started about an hour ago.

"Do you want to just ditch?" Jack asked. "The movie would probably be almost over by the time we get there."

"No, we should go." Davey countered. "Race'll be mad if we don't make an appearance."

"No, he won't." Jack snorted, making Davey laugh. "He'll be attached to Spot's face and won't even notice. But I'm sure your nosy sister and her even nosier girlfriend will have some assumptions of where we were."

"Yeah, probably." The boy in the passenger seat laughed.

"Alright, fine, let's just go." Jack gave in, mostly to avoid Sarah and Katherine's psychopathic shit.

XXX

When Jack and Davey walked hand in hand into Race's basement, everyone except Spot and Race, who were making out, looked up at them. Crutchie, Albert, and Romeo all immediately looked back at the screen, while Sarah and Katherine smirked at them suggestively before turning back to the movie. Race and Spot didn't even acknowledge their exitance.

Jack led Davey over to an unoccupied place on the floor, since all the couches were in use. One of the many downfalls of arriving late. Jack sat up against the wall, and Davey was leaning up against his chest. They realized about two minutes in that Albert and Romeo must have picked the movie, since they were watching some creepy-ass horror movie. Jack quickly remembered that Davey hated horror movies when the taller boy buried his head in the crook of Jack's neck and started shaking after one of the jump scares. Jack wrapped his arm around the other boy's shoulder and comfortingly squeezed it while whispering sweet nothings into his ear. Jack looked up and saw Katherine and Sarah both staring at him and Davey. He shot them a dirty look before going back to comforting his friend. Eventually Davey's shaking subsided, but he didn't look at the screen again until the movie was over.


	11. Realization Is A Bitch

"Davey, Mom wants us home right away." Sarah announced after the movie. Davey untangled himself from Jack as someone turned the lights on, and hopped up off the floor.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"She didn't say." Sarah responded. "She just said she wants us home."

"Ok." Davey shrugged. He said a quick goodbye to Jack, then up the stairs.

As he left, he heard Katherine say, "Can you give me a ride home, Jack?"

Davey didn't hear Jack's response as he followed Srah out the basement door and out of the house to her car.

"How are things with you and Jack?" She said once she pulled out of Race's driveway.

"What do you mean?" Davey asked.

"What, you two _still _aren't together?" Sarah asked, dumbfounded.

"Uh, no, Sarah. We're just friends." The boy replied, confused. Sarah just broke out laughing.

"Yeah, ok." She said when she finally calmed down. "Seriously, little bro, tell me the truth."

"First of all, I _am _telling the truth." Davey started. "Second of all, don't call me that."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute." Sarah said, ignoring his second comment. "You're saying you and Jack really are just friends?"

"Uh, yeah." Davey replied. "I said that three times."

"Oh my God." Sarah said, seemingly coming to some realization. "You really don't see it, do you?"

"See what?" Davey asked, and Sarah just started laughing again.

"What the hell is so funny?" Davey demanded as they stopped at a red light.

"I can't believe you don't see it." Sarah laughed. The light turned green, and she hit the gas.

"See what?" Davey asked again.

"You're in love with Jack." Sarah explained.

"What? No I'm not." Davey denied, blushing.

"Yes you are!" Sarah laughed again as she pulled into their neighborhood. "You so totally are, and you just don't want to admit it!"

Sarah kept going on, but Davey tuned her out to think about what she had said. She thinks he's in love with Jack. Yeah, he loved him as a friend, but was he really _in _love with him? Was that really possible?

"Is he even gay?" He asked Sarah. He may have interrupted her, but he honestly had no idea.

"He's Bi." Sarah responded simply. "And, as I recall, you came out to Les, Mom, and I over the phone three years ago, so there's nothing stopping you two."

"I'm not in love with Jack." I pouted.

"Oh, now that's just pitiful." Sarah laughed. "Seriously, stop lying."

Davey sat silently in the car for a few moments as Sarah pulled into the driveway.

_I'm not in love with Jack, right? _He thought to himself. _There's no way. We're best friends! I'm not in love with him... right?_

He looked up at a smirking Sarah, and suddenly came to his senses.

"I'm in love with Jack Kelly."

XXX

Davey paced in his room the next morning, trying to get a grasp on his new situation, and keep himself from attempting to murder his sister. Their mom didn't need them home. Sarah just wanted to get Davey stuck somewhere so she could talk to him. He never really knew why, but pacing always seemed to help when he needed to think.

Him and Jack... it could never happen. There was no way. They've been best friends since kindergarten. Trying to start anything more now... it could ruin them. He didn't know if Jack even liked him back. Sarah seemed to think it was obvious that he does, but... he can't. There's no way.

Davey decided some water would help him think.

Davey walked out of his room and down the stairs to the kitchen, where he saw Sarah's phone buzz and light up on the kitchen table.

**Katherine: **our plan worked. Jack sang like a bird last night ;)

Davey read it over and over again until the phone screen shut off.

_He sang like a bird? _Davey thought. _What does that mean?_

Davey suddenly heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and he walked away from the phone and grabbed a clean glass off the counter and filled it up at the sink as Sarah entered the room. She smiled politely at him as she picked up her phone and walked back upstairs. Davey just stood at the sink in a daze.

A still very confused Davey walked back up the stairs and into his room, and picked up his phone on his nightstand. He turned it on and went to the messages app, going into his and Jack's thread. He scrolled back up to a message from a few days ago.

**Jack: **got any plans this weekend?

**Davey: **no

**Jack: **good, cuz i have this bring a friend painting thing my art teacher is making me do for extra credit on saturday, and i need u there for moral support

**Davey: **do i actually have to paint

**Jack: **probs

**Davey: **u know im better with words than a paintbrush

**Jack: **come on please? for me?

**Davey: **fine

**Davey: **but only cuz ur so cute when u beg

**Jack:** u know u love me

**Davey: **lol

**Jack: **the thing is at 11 on saturday. ill pick u up at 1030

**Davey: **k

Suddenly Davey remembered that today was Saturday. He looked at the clock on his phone, and it said it was already ten-twenty.

"Shit." Davey muttered to himself. He was still in his pajamas, and he needed a shower before he could leave the house. He sprinted down the hallway at top speed to the bathroom and got the water running. He stripped and showered, then ran back to his room when he was done. He threw on the first outfit he could find - a polo shirt and blue jeans - just as a text came in from Jack.

**Jack: **waiting in your driveway

Davey sighed, and walked out of his room.


	12. At Last

Davey climbed into Jack's car a minute after Jack sent him the text saying he was in the driveway. Jack smiled sweetly at Davey as he put his seatbelt on, and neither of them said anything as Jack put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway and started driving towards the city.

Jack could feel the tension in the air like there was a literal weight on his shoulders. He had no idea who was the cause - him, or Davey. It was probably him.

On the car ride home yesterday after the movie, Katherine and Jack had an eye-opening conversation. She asked how he and Davey were doing, which confused Jack. She was surprised to hear that they weren't together, and all but told Jack that he was in love with Davey. She let him come to the realization on his own, but it was so obvious by the end that even a very drunk Albert (Or just Albert in general) could've figured it out.

Jack had planned to bring Davey to this art class with him before he had his... realization... and he didn't want to cancel now, because it would look weird. No matter how Jack felt, the boys were still best friends, and Jack didn't want to ruin that now by canceling plans. He knew that at some point his feelings would blow over, or at least die down to a manageable level, and he could get back to his normal routine with Davey. Jack really wanted to reach over the console and grab Davey's hand, but he was worried that it would mean more to him than it did to Davey, which wasn't fair to the other boy, so Jack decided against it.

"So... what is this painting thing about?" Davey asked, breaking the incredibly awkward silence. Though, in fairness, he didn't make it any less awkward.

"Uh... It's this painting class my art teacher is teaching where she demonstrates how to paint something, and everyone else does it along with her." Jack explained.

"Why do you need the extra credit?" Davey asked, and Jack felt a sense of calm wash over him.

_This is normal. _He thought to himself.

"I turned in a project late and my grade dropped, so I needed somthing to bring it back up." Jack said.

"Oh." Davey said, and they fell into an awkward silence again. Jack was very aware of how empty his hand felt, but again didn't do anything about it.

They drove the rest of the half an hour car ride in silence. Jack so desperately wanted to break the tension, but he had no idea what he would say.

XXX

Neither of the boys had much fun at the art class. Jack wanted to enjoy it so much, and normally he would have enjoyed a morning relaxing and painting with his best friend, but the tension between the two was just too much to bear.

XXX

Just over a week later at school, Jack and Davey were sitting next to each other at lunch like they did every day, but they were sitting as far apart as they possibly could in their chairs, which were bolted to the table. Neither of them were participating in any conversations. Davey was reading a book and Jack was intently focusing on his dry turkey sandwich.

Crutchie must have noticed, because he said, "Are you two ok? You both seem... off."

"I'm good." Both boys said in unison before going back to their previous activities. Out of the corner of his eye, Jack could see Crutchie giving them a skeptical look before grabbing his crutch and standing up. The boy leaned heavily on his crutch as he hobbled over to Jack.

"Come with me." He said, starting towards the cafeteria doors.

"Where?" Jack asked, standing up and grabbing his and Crutchie's bags in turn.

"Just come on." He said, snatching the bags from Jack and throwing them on the floor, then leading him towards the door. Jack shrugged and followed.

When they got into the hallway, Jack started "Crutch, what is thi..."

"What the hell is wrong with you lately?" Crutchie demanded, catching Jack off guard. When he didn't respond, Crutchie went on. "For the past week, you and Davey have both been sulking around and barely talking to anyone. I don't think I've seen either of you even glance at each other all week."

"I... uh..." Jack tried, unable to find words.

"Spit it out, Kelly." Crutchie said, his happy demeanor still not returning after his last statement.

"I'm in love with Davey and I don't know what to do." Jack deadpanned. Crutchie looked shocked for a moment before smirking.

"You're just now figuring this out?" Crutchie asked, playfully hitting Jack upside the head. "Even Race noticed, and you know how he is. He doesn't know anything until he's told, he's too damn busy sucking face, and even _he _figured it out on his own."

"Was it that obvious?" Jack asked, putting his head in his hands.

"Yes. Yes, it was." Crutchie responded.

"What do I do?" Jack asked, looking up.

"You tell him, dumbass." Crutchie laughed.

"How do I even know he even likes me back?" Jack asked.

"Oh my god. It's so obvious!" Crutchie exclaimed, his voice filling the entire hallway. "Well, it was a week ago. Now both of you are just acting all weird and mopey."

"What if that means he doesn't like me anymore?" Jack whined.

"How did you figure out you like him?" Crutchie asked.

"Kath pointed it out to me." Jack said, making the other boy laugh. "What?"

"Suddenly this all makes so much sense." Crutchie laughed.

"What does?" Jack asked.

"Ok, so, you and Davey started acting really weird at the same time, right?" Cruthie started, obviously about to launch into a really long explanation.

"Yeah...?" Jack guessed.

"And when did Katherine 'point this out' to you?" Crutchie continued, putting air quotes around 'point this out'.

"On the drive home from our last movie night." Jack answered.

"And what do you think Sarah and Davey were talking about on their drive home that night?" Crutchie smirked.

"Oh my god." Jack said, putting his head in his hands again. "I'm so stupid."

"No, you're not." Crutchie laughed, putting a supportive hand on Jack's shoulder. "You're in love."

"Ugh." Jack groaned into his hands.

"Come on." Crutchie laughed, and Jack pulled his head out of his hands. "Let's get back to lunch."

Jack and Crutchie slowly returned to the lunch table. As they sat down, Davey looked up. Jack sent him a small smile, which Davey reciprocated before going back to his book.

"Kath and I were thinking we should all go to the mall after school on Friday." Sarah announced.

"I'm down." Albert said.

"Cool." Romeo, who shockingly stayed for the entire lunch period, added.

"We'll go." Spot said around Race's lips.

"Sounds good to me." Crutchie smiled.

"I'll go." Davey said in a small voice.

"Me, too." Jack added, smiling for the first time in a week. It felt good to smile. He missed smiling.


	13. Catastrophe and the Cure

Jack was whispering to Crutchie as the group walked into the mall that Friday afternoon, all of them soaking wet. There was a record-breaking storm going on outside.

"When should I tell him?" He asked for the hundredth time, and Crutchie rolled his eyes.

"When you feel the time is right." Crutchie explained again, clearly annoyed.

"But when is that?" Jack asked again, pissing Crutchie off.

"Let's go to the food court. I'm starving." Albert announced before Crutchie could get another word in.

"We just ate lunch three hours ago." Sarah pointed out.

"Exactly. I'm starving. Let's go." Albert whined.

"I have to go to the bathroom first." Jack announced.

"Me, too." Davey said, and an awkward silence followed.

"Uh, there's one by the elevator." Katherine said, trying and failing to read the room. "We'll meet you two up in the food court. It's on the second floor."

"Ok." They said in unison as they walked towards the bathroom, the others turning to go up the stairs towards the food court.

The two boys silently used the bathroom, then met up in front of the elevator when they were done.

"Elevator or stairs?" Jack asked.

"Elevator is fine." Davey replied, hitting the 'up' button. Then they heard a huge thunder crack from outside.

"Wow." Jack commented. "They weren't kidding about record-breaking."

"Yeah." Davey replied as the elevator doors opened.

The two boys stepped into the otherwise empty elevator and Jack hit the 'second floor' button as the doors closed. After they were mostly up, the elevator jutted to a stop, and the lights went out. After a few seconds, the low watt emergency light kicked on.

"Uh... did the power just go out?" Davey asked.

"I think so." Jack replied. As his eyes adjusted to the pitch-black room, he walked over to the buttons and started pressing them, but none of them lit up like normal. He even tried the emergency button, but nothing happened. Then he turned to the doors and tried to pry them open with no avail. He sighed as he walked to stand next to Davey, who was leaning on the wall. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. No service. Defeated, Jack slid down the wall to sit on the floor, and Davey reciprocated the action until he was sitting next to Jack.

"What are we going to do?" Davey asked, sounding slightly desperate.

"I don't know." Jack responded, helpless. Through the dark, he could hear Davey's heavy breathing. It sounded like he was having a panic attack.

"Hey, are you ok?" Jack asked, putting his arm around Davey's shoulders. Jack felt the boy shaking. Davey leaned into the touch, but his breath didn't slow and the shaking didn't stop.

Jack, having experiences many panic attacks himself in the past, started doing what helped calm him down. He moved so he was sitting in front of Davey, pulling him into a tight hug and humming _Perfect _by Ed Sheeran in his ear. He didn't know why he chose that song. It was probably playing on the radio earlier or something.

Eventually, Davey's breathing started to normalize, and the shaking subsided. Jack stayed in the embrace and continued humming until he was sure he was really ok.

"Thanks." Davey said, and Jack heard the small smile in his voice. "I have really bad claustrophobia sometimes."

"You don't need to explain." Jack reassured him, scooting back to his original place on the wall and grabbing Davey's hand out of habit. "We all get panic attacks sometimes. We don't get to know why, and we never need to explain after. It just happens."

The boys sat there for a moment in the silence before Davey said, "Why _Perfect_?"

"Huh?" Jack asked, confused.

"You were humming _Perfect _by Ed Sheeran in my ear. Why that song?"

"Oh, uh... I don't know. I probably heard it on the radio earlier or something."

"Oh." Jack didn't know if it was just him, but he could swear Davey sounded defeated.

As the boys sat in silence again, jack remembered the conversation he had with Crutchie just ten minutes ago.

_"When should I tell him?" He asked for the hundredth time, and Crutchie rolled his eyes._

_"When you feel the time is right." Crutchie explained again, clearly annoyed._

"Davey?"

"Yeah?"

Jack took a deep breath. "...Nevermind."

"No, what?" Davey said, squeezing Jack's hand.

"So, I had this weird conversation with Kath on the way home from movie night last week." Jack started, unsure of how to approach this.

"...Ok?"

"So, she said something about... how..." Jack trailed off.

"How what?" Davey prompted.

"HowImightbeinlovewithyou." Jack mumbled quickly, and almost inaudibly, under his breath.

"What?"

"How I might be in love with you." Jack said, loud enough for Davey to hear this time. "And how you might be in love with me, too, but that's just ridiculous, right? I mean, there's no wa-"

Jack was cut off by Davey's hands on his cheeks and lips meeting his own. He sat in shock for a moment before melting into it. Jack pulled the other boy closer by snaking his arms around Davey's neck.

When he pulled away, Davey asked, "Does this answer your question?"

"Yes." Jack smiled, going back in for another kiss.

"Mm." Davey said again.

"What?" Jack asked, pulling away again.

"I've been waiting to do that for a long time." Davey said, and Jack pulled him back in for another kiss. Suddenly, the door dinged and opened behind them, the lights flooding the space.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" Katherine smirked at the two boys sitting on the floor together, and both of their faces turned bright red.

Jack surveyed the image in front of him as he scrambled to stand up and walk out of the elevator. All of his friends, minus Race and Spot, were standing in front of the elevator, staring at him and Davey, all with varying emotions displayed on their faces. Sarah and Katherine were smirking, Crutchie was smiling, and Albert and Romeo were both shocked. Jack and Davey just stood there holding hands, faces as red as tomatoes.

Jack opened his mouth to say something, but shut it when Sarah said "Did you two finally come to your senses and tell each other how you feel?"

"Uh... yeah." Davey said, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.

Suddenly Spot and Race appeared at the back of the group, both disheveled and with new hickeys forming on their necks.

"What's going on?" Race asked.

"Jack and Davey finally stopped being dumbasses and admitted their feelings." Sarah smirked.

"Can we _please _go to the food court now? I'm still starving." Albert piped up for the back of the group, and everyone either snickered or sighed as they turned to walk to the food court.


	14. Love Turns You Upside Down

Davey sat on the couch at his house, his head in Jack's lap. Jack was absent-mindedly running his hands through Davey's hair, making it almost impossible for him to focus on what they were supposed to be watching on the TV in front of them. He just couldn't get over how good Jack's hands felt in his hair.

Suddenly Davey heard the front door open, and scrambled to sit up and scoot away from Jack as Sarah and Katherine walked in the door, hand in hand.

Sarah must have seen the blush on Davey's cheeks, because she laughed, "Wow. Twice in one week."

"Fuck off, Sarah." Davey said, and the two girls laughed and walked down the hall and up the stairs, leaving the two boys alone again in the living room.

Davey scooted back down the couch to sit back next to Jack, and layed his head down on Jack's shoulder. He smiled as Jack put his arm around Davey's shoulders.

"You know," Jack started, "They know we're together. You don't need to run away from me whenever someone walks in the door."

"I haven't told my mom yet. What if it had been her?"

"Dave, it's three o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon. Most adults are at work."

"Well... I just..." Davey tried to come up with an excuse, but couldn't think of anything. "Ugh."

"It's ok." Jack kissed the top of his head. "I get it."

"But you shouldn't have to." Davey said, sitting up. "I'm sure you've told Medda by now, right?"

"Yeah, but I tell her everything." He said. "Not everyone has that kind of relationship with their parents. And you haven't really seen your mom in five years anyway, and you may not be as close with her as you would have been if you'd stayed. I get it."

There was a beat of silence as Davey put his head back in Jack's lap again then whispered, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Jack asked, absentmindedly running his hands through Davey's hair again.

"For roping you into my mess of a life. You shouldn't have to shoulder all of my burdens."

"But I want to." Jack said, leaning down and kissing Davey's exposed cheek. "That's what relationships are about. Trust. If you didn't trust me with this stuff, then we would have a problem."

"Look at you, being the levelheaded one." Davey laughed.

"Don't get used to it. Its never happening again."

"I figured."

The two boys returned their focus back to the TV, but again Davey couldn't retain any information. He just loved the feeling of Jack's hands in his hair.

XXX

Jack sat in French three, the only class he had with Davey, staring at the back of his head from in front of him while he should have been focusing on the test he was taking. Their teacher usually had their desks set up in tables, and she let them pick their own seats, but on days they took tests, she had all the desks face the front board, and she didn't let anyone sit within arm's length of anyone else. Jack understood it was to prevent cheating and stuff, but while he was sitting there staring at Davey, all he wanted to do was touch him.

"Davey." He whispered up at him. Davey didn't respond.

"Davey." Jack whispered again.

All Jack heard was a simple "Shhh." From who, he wasn't sure.

Jack, defeated, looked back down at his test. He tried to read the directions, but they were all in French, and he kind of sucked at the language. How he passed French one and two and made it to the third level, he would never know.

Again, Jack decided to try and get Davey's attention. He smirked, and leaned over his desk and grabbed Davey's ass through the opening at the bottom of the chair. Davey jumped six feet in the air, prompting the concerned voice from their French teacher from across the room.

"David, ca va?" She asked, confirming he was ok in her delightfully sweet French accent.

"Uh... oui, Madame Daigre." Davey said, then turned around and shot a smirking Jack a dirty look.

XXX

After class, Davey pulled Jack over in the hallway.

"What the hell was that?" He demanded.

"What?" Jack asked with a sense of mock innocence.

"We were taking a test, and you reached up and _grabbed my ass_."

Jack could only stand there, frozen. He could tell Davey was really mad.

"I'm sorry, I-" Jack tried, but Davey's lips met his, effectively cutting him off. If he was being honest, he wasn't quite sure what he would've said after that.

"It's ok." Davey said, pulling away and grabbing Jack's hand. "Just... not in class, ok?"

"Ok." Jack agreed. He was glad Davey wasn't mad at him, and that he got to kiss him in the school hallway.

"Fags!" Jack heard someone call as they walked past. He looked up just in time to see Morris and Oscar Delancy walk by. Both Jack and Davey flipped them off as they went down the hall, but neither of them seemed to notice.

Jack took Davey's hand and started leading him away from their last class, to which Davey said, "You know my next class is the other way, right? And, so is yours."

"I had something else in mind." Jack smirked, reaching his destination. He pulled open the door to the janitors closet in front of him to see Spot kneeling down in front of Race, who's pants and boxers were on the floor.

"Lock the door next time!" Jack called, which made both boys turn to them, a beet red blush covering both their faces, before Jack slammed the door. Both Jack and Davey started laughing out loud.

"Is _that_ what you wanted to do in there?" Davey asked, pointing at the closet.

"No, I wanted to make out. Not _that_." Jack said, making both boys laugh again as the second bell rang, signaling the start of their next class. Jack suddenly noticed how uncharacteristically empty the hallway was.

"Shit, We're late." Davey said.

"Just tell your teacher you were making out in the janitor's closet." Jack smirked.

"Yeah, ok." Davey laughed, kissing Jack on the cheek. "I'll see you at lunch."

"See you at lunch!" Jack called after Davey down the hallway.

Once Davey had turned the corner and was out of sight, the janitor's closet door burst open behind him. Jack turned to see a messy-haired Spot and a disheveled looking Race come out, hand in hand.

"Well, if it isn't the school's resident fuck masters." Jack smirked.

"Fuck off." Spot said, then he and his boyfriend ran up the hall to their next class. Jack rolled his eyes and straightened his backpack on his shoulders before going to his next class: art.


	15. I Should Tell You

Davey was walking behind the school at the end of the day, going to meet Jack at his car so they could go back to his place.

"Hey, fag!" He heard a voice call behind him, and he turned to see Oscar and Morris behind him, smirks covering their faces.

"What do you want?" He sighed, brushing off the offensive slur.

The brothers continued walking until they were about two inched from Davey's face. Then, without any warning, he felt a fist connect with his jaw.

Davey stumbled back against the wall, hitting his head hard against it in the process, which only made his pain worse. He closed his eyes and felt another fist hit his chest. Again, and again, and again, until he was sure something was broken. As he slid down the wall, he was vaguely aware of a faint laughing. His ears were ringing, so he wasn't really sure.

He felt a shoe connect with his face, and then he felt blood coming out of his nose.

"What, you're not going to even try to fight back?" One of the brothers sneered. He wasn't sure who. Davey couldn't tell the two apart.

"Yeah, you need your fag boyfriend to fight all your battles or you?" The other one said.

"He's- not my- b-boyfriend." Davey managed to stutter out. The two of them hadn't put a label on it yet, and he wasn't going to let Oscar and Morris do it for them.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry." One said, mock sincerity in his voice then turned to his brother and laughed.

Davey felt another fist connect with his face, on his eye this time, making it very hard for him to see. He closed his eyes to keep from seeing the blood rushing through it. He felt the shoe on his stomach again before he heard footsteps approaching, and fast.

He heard three punches, and a few seconds of struggle before he heard two sets of footsteps running away. Davey felt tears start to stream down his face, and he put his head in his hands.

_No, not again. _Davey thought to himself. _I can't believe this is happening again._

"Davey?" He heard a soft, familiar voice say. He opened his eyes to see Jack kneeling in front of him, worry in his eyes.

"Jackie?" He said, wiping away his existing tears, but more just fell down his face.

"What happened?" Jack asked, putting one hand on Davey's shoulder and using the other to examine to wounds on his face. Davey was glad he didn't flinch away from Jack's touch.

"I was walking to your car when they just attacked me." Davey groaned, the tears still falling down his face. He didn't want to hide from Jack.

"Where else did they hit you?" Jack asked, still examining his face.

"Here," Davey said, wincing as he gestured to his torso.

Jack moved his hands to the bottom of Davey's shirt to lift it, but Davey grabbed his hands before he could lift it.

"Please. Not here." Davey begged, and Jack nodded sympathetically. Jack wrapped his arm around Davey's waist, slowly and carefully pulling him up. Davey tried and failed not to wince. He had a hard time hiding his pain, no matter how many times this happened to him. He just couldn't do it, especially when there was no reason to.

Jack slowly led the hurting boy back to his car, gaining confused looks from everyone they passed. Davey held Jack's hand tightly over the console of the car during the entire silent ride to Jack's house, the other hand pinching his nose. The bleeding had stopped by the time they arrived.

When they parked, Jack helped Davey out of the car and into the house, and Jack laid him down on the couch in the living room. Jack silently ran out of the room and came back a few seconds later with a first aid kit in his hands. He knelt down in front of Davey and again took the hem of Davey's shirt in his hands.

"Is this ok?" Jack asked, and Davey nodded. He couldn't help but laugh to himself. In a different situation, this may have been going somewhere completely different.

Jack carefully lifted Davey's shirt so it was rolled up at the top of his chest. Davey examined his chest and saw that there were purple bruises and shallow cuts all up and down his torso. He threw his head back and groaned.

"Where does it hurt?" Jack asked, genuine concern in his eyes.

"Uh... Can I ask you something?" Davey prompted out of the blue, changing the subject. Now that he was laying on a comfortable couch with Jack by his side, he wasn't in much pain.

"Anything, Dave," Jack replied.

"Are we boyfriends?" He deadpanned.

"What? 'Course we are!" Jack confirmed, grabbing his hand, and making Davey smile. "Why are you asking?"

"Well, the Delanceys were teasing me about how you were my boyfriend, and I wasn't sure if you were or not."

"Davey, you don't need to worry about stuff like that." Jack smiled, grabbing Davey's hands. "I love you, and nothing in the world is going to change that."

"I love you, too," Davey said, smiling despite the pain. Jack smiled back for a moment before dropping Davey's hands and going to work on cleaning up the wounds on Davey's torso.

"You know, this would be a lot more fun in a different situation." Jack laughed, making Davey roll his eyes, but join in on the laughing anyway.

"How did you learn all this first aid stuff?" Davey asked, unintentionally changing the subject.

"Um..." Jack started, clearly uncomfortable with the topic.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Davey reassured, and Jack smiled a little.

"I want to," Jack confirmed, taking a deep breath. "One of the little kids in one of my old foster homes, his name was Elmer... he was bullied a lot at school and always came home with cuts and bruises like this, so I learned to patch them up for him."

"I'm sure you did a good job, but... why didn't your foster parents do it?" Davey asked cautiously. He didn't want to open a can of worms or something.

"We knew it would be better to hide it from them," Jack explained, starting to bandage up his abdomen. "They had, like, five to seven kids at a time, and they were always looking for an excuse to send one away. If they had found out Elmer was getting bullied, they would have booted him for sure. And he was only eight at the time."

"That's terrible," Davey commented.

"Well, they didn't hit us, so they had that going for them," Jack commented, almost jokingly, and Davey went silent. Jack looked up at his face, and he must have been wearing a weird expression, because he added, "Oh my god. I'm so sorry. I..."

"It's ok Jack." Davey smiled, putting his hand on his boyfriend's cheek. "You don't need to be sorry. You never need to be sorry."

Jack smiled and leaned in for a kiss.


	16. Beautiful Doom

Davey walked into his house after school a few weeks later (all of his bruises and cuts had healed by that point), and saw an open, official-looking letter on the table next to the door. His curiosity getting the better of him, he picked it up and started reading it.

_Dear Esther Jacobs,_

_On March 1, 2019, at 8 AM, your presence is required at the Manhattan county courthouse for the custody hearing for the minor(s) Sarah Jacobs, David Jacobs, and Lester Jacobs. The child(ren)'s other legal guardian, Mayer Jacobs, has expressed a desire for full custody of them._

At this point, Davey put the letter down. He didn't need to know any more. His father wanted full custody of him and his siblings.

Davey fell onto a heap on the floor and started sobbing. He couldn't go back there. He just couldn't.

As tears started to fall down his face, he stood up and wiped them away, walking towards his room. When he got there, he shut the door, probably using more force than necessary, and threw his backpack on the floor. He fell into a heap on his bed, letting his tears flow. Knowing he needed someone to comfort him, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Jack.

"Hey, Davey, what's up?" Jack asked with a lighthearted tone when he picked up on the fourth ring.

"Jack?" Was all Davey could muster. His voice sounded far off and broken.

"Dave, what's wrong?" Jack asked, all playfulness out of his tone.

"Can you come over?" Davey pleaded. "I really need you right now."

"Yeah, of course," Jack replied on the other end of the line. "I'll be there in five minutes. Do you want me to hang up, or stay on the line?"

"Can you stay?" Davey asked, trying and failing to keep the tears from flowing.

"Of course," Jack replied. Davey heard the sounds of Jack starting his car and the radio flood on. Jack sang softly along with whatever song was playing, Davey wasn't really sure, making him smile. Jack never really sang, but he had a beautiful voice. He said the musical director asks him every year to try out, but he always respectfully declines. Jack always complains about how much he hates the director.

Before Davey knew it, Jack said, "I'm here." over the phone.

"The door is unlocked," Davey said in a shaky voice, his breath getting faster again when he remembered his predicament.

Davey heard the 'call ended' noise on his phone as his boyfriend appeared in his bedroom doorway, quickly crossing the room to him and engulfing Davey in a hug. Davey leaned into his touch.

"I need you to breathe with me, Davey," Jack whispered in his ear. "In, out. In, out. In, out."

Jack kept coaching him through his breathing until his heart had slowed back to normal, and he felt he was in control of himself.

"Do you want to tell me what's wrong? You don't have to if you don't want to." Jack asked, pulling away so he could look at Davey's face. Davey watched as Jack grabbed his hand and squeezed it, unable to look up at him.

"It's my dad," Davey responded, struggling to make coherent words as he said it out loud for the first time. "He wants to sue my mom for custody of Sarah, Les, and I."

XXX

Davey woke the next morning enveloped in Jack's arms, both of them still in yesterdays clothes and on top of the covers of Davey's bed.

"How ya feeling?" Jack asked when he noticed Davey was awake.

"As good as I could feel with this sword that's looming over my head, I guess," Davey responded, noticing now how his eyes were stinging from crying.

"Do you want to stay home from school today?" Jack proposed.

"No, no. We have to go." Davey said, checking the time on his watch. They were going to be late if they didn't get a move on. He tried to get out of bed, but Jack pulled him back down.

"Dave, if you don't want to go, we don't have to." Jack insisted.

"Jack, we have to go to school. Now, get out of bed. You can borrow some of my clothes." Davey pulled Jack, Who was groaning, out of bed. The two silently (and admittedly awkwardly), Jack seeming very unhappy with the sweater and khaki pants Davey leaned him. Davey thought he looked cute.

As the two walked down the stairs and out the door to Jack's car, Davey asked, "Ok, what's so wrong with my clothes?"

"Nothing," Jack replied, pulling at the collar of the sweater. "This sweater is just so... boxy."

"I think you look cute," Davey replied, pecking a grumbling Jack on the cheek before they got in the car. Jack grabbed Davey's hand as soon as he had the car going.

After a few minutes of silence, Jack broke it with, "We really _can _skip if you want to."

Davey sighed, rolled his eyes, and replied with, "Stop, Jack. I'm fine. Really." He squeezed Jack's hand.

"Just... let me know if you need to leave at some point today, ok?"

"Jack, you care so much, and I love you for that, but if you suggest skipping school again, I'll soak you."

"Yeah, like you could take me." Jack snorted as he pulled into the school parking lot.

"...Shut up." Davey blushed, making Jack laugh. Before the two got out of the car, Jack pulled Davey into a loving kiss.

Once they were out of the car, Jack grabbed Davey's hand again. Davey couldn't help but feel a sense of calm wash over him as Jack whispered, "I love you." in his ear.

"I love you, too." Davey smiled as the two entered the school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiatus? Me? What? Where did you hear that? In all seriousness, I'm sorry for being gone so long. I've just been so busy with my birthday (I'm finally 16!) and school starting soon, and I've also had some really bad writers block that I finally got over. Thanks for waiting so long, and happy reading!


	17. Perfect

"So... I was thinking that we should all get together and do something tonight with tomorrow being... tomorrow," Jack said, his arm around his boyfriend's shoulders and Davey snuggling into Jack, at their table in the cafeteria, their friends surrounding them.

"What's tomorrow again?" Albert asked, and Crutchie rolled his eyes and whispered in his ear. Albert then blushed and suddenly became very interested in his greasy cafeteria pizza.

"It's ok, guys. You can talk about it." Davey said.

"We know you're trying to be sensitive, but its something that we're going to have to face," Sarah said. "We know our parent's court case is tomorrow, but it's going to be ok." Katherine grabbed Sarah's hand and squeezed it on top of the table and quickly let it go as Jack pulled Davey tighter into him. Jack kissed the top of his boyfriend's head, smelling his hair.

"I wish I could, guys, but I've got a date." Romeo gloated, waggling his eyebrows. Everyone else groaned and rolled their eyes.

"How long is this one gonna last, Romeo?" Crutchie prodded.

"No, no, this girl is different. I actually like her." Romeo asserted.

"Yeah, right." Albert laughed.

"Sorry, guys, but Kath and I have newspaper." Sarah apologized.

"Yeah, and I've got wrestling practice that I can't miss." Spot piped up while Race's mouth was on his neck, pushing his boyfriend's head away. Race let out a small disappointed sound. "Coach'll have my ass if I miss another practice."

"Yeah, and we all know why you miss practice." Romeo chuckled.

"You're one to talk, smart-ass." Jack piped up. Romeo flipped him off, and Jack reciprocated.

"What about you guys, Race, Crutchie, Albert?" Davey asked.

"I've got choir rehearsal," Crutchie said. "We have this huge benefit concert coming up in a few weeks that we need to get ready for."

"And I've got a track meet." Race said before re-attaching his lips back to Spot's neck. Everyone rolled their eyes.

"Albert?" Jack asked.

Albert looked up from his phone. "Can't. I'm still grounded."

"From what?" Davey asked, sitting up. His back was starting to hurt from the unnatural position and the uncomfortable cafeteria chair.

"My mom busted me stealing her booze," Albert explained simply before going back to whatever he was doing on his phone.

"So I guess it's just you and me, then," Jack whispered to Davey as everyone went back to their individual conversations.

"I guess so." Davey smiled.

XXX

"Dave. Davey! Wake up, Davey." Jack said in a soothing voice in Davey's ear.

"What? What happened?" Davey asked, noticing the cold sweat covering his body.

"You were having a nightmare," Jack explained.

Davey looked around the room. This wasn't his bedroom. This was Jack's living room.

"What time is it?" He asked.

"Six pm," Jack explained. "You fell asleep while we were watching TV. I wanted to let you sleep, but then you started sweating and shaking and mumbling, so I figured you were having a nightmare."

Suddenly, the memories of the dream Davey was having crashed back over him.

_"You little piece of shit."_

_"No, Dad, please no!"_

_CRASH!_

_"That'll teach you to talk back to me, young man."_

"Davey, it's alright. I'm right here." Jack said, pulling Davey out of his trance.

"I can't go back there, Jack. I just cant." Davey cried. Jack pulled Davey into his arms, and Davey melted into them.

"I know, Dave, and I'll make sure you never see that son of a bitch again." Jack consoled. And then he did something he's never done before. He started singing.

_"I found a love for me. Darling just dive right in and follow my lead. Well, I found a boy..."_ Davey smiled at how Jack changed the words._ "beautiful and sweet. I never knew you were the someone waiting for me. 'Cause we were just kids when we fell in love not knowing what it was. I will not give you up this time. But darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own, and in your eyes you're holding mine. Baby, I'm dancing in the dark with you between my arms. Barefoot on the grass listening to our favorite song. When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath, but you heard it. Darling, you look perfect tonight."_

"That was so cheesy." Davey laughed, causing Jack to start laughing too. And Davey swore he fell in love with Jack all over again every time he laughed. "You are such a romantic."

"You love it, though."

"Yeah, I do."

Jack finished the rest of the song, and Davey could feel himself calm down as he listened to Jack sing. He never really realized how nice his voice was until now.

"You have a beautiful voice," Davey said when Jack finished.

"Yeah, right." Jack brushed it off.

"I'm serious." Davey reaffirmed. "You should be in the choir or something."

"With those kids? No way." Jack laughed. "don't get me wrong, I love Crutchie, but damn. Those kids are a lot."

They laid there in silence for a little while, Davey in Jack's arms, before Davey whispered, "Thank you."

"For what?" Jack asked.

"For always being there for me." Davey smiled. "You've been with me first as my friend, now as my boyfriend, through everything, and I just love you so much."

"I love you, too," Jack said and kissed Davey's hair. "And whatever happens tomorrow, I'll still be there. Right by your side."

"For sure?" Davey asked.

"For sure."


	18. Once and For All

Davey sat down in the had seat in the courtroom, holding Jack's hand. He gazed blankly at the back of his Mom's head in front of him, switching between staring at her graying light brown hair to her layer's jet black hair. It was the kind of black that was so black it's almost blue. Davey always liked that color.

"Davey?" Jack asked, pulling him out of his daze. "Are you sure you wanna be here? Because we can sit in the hall if you want."

"No, I'm ok." He replied, scanning the rest of the empty row. The empty seats were where Sarah and Les would've sat if they were called. Probably Katherine too. But since Davey was the only one who lived with him since the divorce, he was the only one called to testify. Sarah begged to come this morning, but their mom said no. She didn't want more kids than necessary to have to be here.

"All rise for the honorable Judge Roosevelt." Someone from the front of the courtroom said. Davey reluctantly stood up, never letting go of Jack's hand. A red-haired man in black robes entered, and once he was seated, everyone sat down.

As the judge started talking, Davey tuned out the world and got lost in his head. He didn't want to listen to any more of this than he had to.

He stared at his father, who was sitting across the room. He was in a pressed suit and looked sober as ever. This was probably the most competent Davey had seen his father since before the divorce.

"Hey," Jack whispered in his ear. "Don't look at him. It'll only make you feel worse."

Davey nodded, just silently watching the scene unfold in front of him. It was like something from law and order. (He didn't make a habit of watching it, but Sarah loved it and he would sit in the living room and watch it with her sometimes.) He watched as his Mom was questioned by her lawyer, then his father's, then again with his father. He saw the family and friends that went up to the stand. He watched as they went from person to person, almost like they were robots.

"We call to the stand David Jacobs." His mom's lawyer finally said, catching his attention.

Jack squeezed his hand and smiled at him before he stood up, slowly walking towards the stand. He could feel the eyes of the whole room on him. He looked down at his hands, and they were shaky and sweaty. He took a deep breath as he sat down at the stand. A security officer walked up to him holding a bible. Davey didn't even have it in him to tell the guy that he's Jewish.

The man held the book out, and Davey put his left hand on it and his right hand up.

"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you, God?" He recited.

"Y-yes," Davey said, his voice shaking. The man took the bible away, and Davey put his hands down. His mom's lawyer stood up and walked towards him.

"Hello, David." The lawyer started. "Can I call you that? David?"

"Davey." He corrected.

"Davey. Ok." She smiled. "Now, can you tell the court how you related to Esther and Mayer Jacobs?"

"I'm their son." He replied.

"Ok. Now, who did you go to live with after your parents split up?"

"My dad."

"And you lived in California, correct?"

"Yes."

"And did you know anyone out there when you moved? Friend? Family?" She asked, starting to pace.

"No," Davey replied, starting to relax a little. All of these questions were easy facts, and none of the questions brought up bad memories he would rather not relive.

"Did anyone else living with you and your Dad? Or was it just the two of you?"

"No, it was just us." Davey's breathing started to quicken. He knew where this was going. He didn't want to talk about this. He just didn't.

"And did your father drink? Or smoke?"

"Y-yes. Both."

"And did your father ev..." Davey was sure the lawyer was still talking, but he just couldn't hear what she was saying. He was breathing too hard. That is, until he locked eyes with Jack. Jack smiled reassuringly at him, which caused Davey's breathing and heart rate to return to normal.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?" Davey said, his voice perfectly level.

"Did your father ever hurt you physically?" She repeated calmly.

"Y-yes." Davey stuttered, no longer as composed. He couldn't bring himself to look at his father. He knew what his face looks like. It would look hurt on the outside, but only Davey would be able to see the anger in his eyes.

"Can you please elaborate on some of the times he hurt you?" She asked. "I'm sorry if this question is difficult."

"N-no, it's ok," Davey replied. "It's ok." He whispered to himself again, before he took a deep breath and his voice returned to a normal level. "He would... get really drunk at first. I think it was from the depression that came from the divorce. But... then he got angry." He took a deep breath. "He got really angry and then... and then..." Tears started to run down his face as he spoke. He took a deep breath and continued. "He... he would hit me... and burn me with his cigarettes... and break bottles over my head. By the end of last year, it got so bad that I just had to get out. I... I used the money I had saved to buy a car and got a plane ticket home. I only told my mom a couple of hours before I got on the plane. I didn't want my dad to find out and for him to hurt me even worse."

"Thank you, Davey." The lawyer smiled, sympathetically, since she had never heard the whole story before, then turned to the judge. "No further questions, your honor."

As she went to sit down, Davey's dad's lawyer, a middle-aged man, stood up and walked towards him.

"Hello, Davey." He said. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Sure," Davey replied, knowing he didn't have a choice.

"Do you have any mental health disabilities?"

"Uh, yeah. And anxiety disorder." Davey hung his head in shame.

"And when were you diagnosed with this?"

"When I was in grade school."

"And do you think that this disorder could have caused you to imagine these situations where you say your dad hurt you?" He asked, and Davey's heart started to quicken.

"Objection, speculation and badgering the witness." His mom's lawyer called out, standing up. Both the lawyer and his mom looked mad.

"Sustained." The judge called. "Do you have any other questions for the witness?" He turned to the lawyer.

"None." The lawyer grumbled, returning to his seat.

"We will reconvene after a brief recess." The judge called, banging his gabble. Davey got up and ran out of the room.

XXX

Jack watched as Davey ran out of the room, still horrified by the questions his dad's lawyer had asked. After a moment of shock, he followed Davey out of the room.

When he got into the hall, he saw his boyfriend sitting on the floor, head in his hands and shaking. Jack quietly sat down next to him and soothingly whispered in his ear.

"Can I touch you?" Jack asked, knowing that he needed to always ask for permission before touching someone who was having a panic attack.

Davey nodded, and Jack slowly pulled Davey close to him, rocking him.

"Breath with me, Davey, ok?" Jack stated, and Davey nodded. "In, out. One. In, out. Two. In, out. Three."

Jack continued counting until Davey's breathing had returned to normal.

"Are you ok? Do you need to leave?" Jack asked, planning out what he would tell Davey's mom if they needed to make a quick escape.

"No, no. I'm fine." Davey replied, taking another deep breath.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes before Davey's mom walked up.

"They're calling us back in now." She said. "The judge made a decision."

Davey started to stand up, but Jack held him down for a moment.

"Just remember that whatever happens in there will happen," Jack reassured him. "And if the judge rules in favor of your father, we'll deal with it, ok? I'm not going to let you go back with him. I swear."

Davey took a deep breath and nodded. The two boys stood up and walked back into the courtroom, hand in hand. As they sat down in the same seats they were in earlier in the day, Jack felt Davey tense.

"It'll be ok," Jack reassured, himself just as much as Davey, as the judge called for silence.

"The court has come to a decision." Judge Roosevelt said from his podium. "The custody of Sarah, David, and Lester Jacobs goes to..."

Jack took a sharp breath in when he heard the name that was called.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bum bum bum! Cliffhanger! Stay tuned for the next chapter (the epilogue!!) which should be out soon!


	19. Epilogue

Jack slung his arm over his boyfriend's shoulder as they walked towards their school for the first time in three months. He felt Davey take a deep breath and noticed a nervous look on his face.

"You ok, Dave?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," Davey replied, seeming as though he was trying to convince himself. "Yeah."

"You should be excited! It's the start of our senior year!" Jack said.

"Yeah!" Race said, running up from behind them and clapping Jack on the back. "Lighten up, Davey!"

Davey flipped Race off as they walked up the stairs to the front door. Race pulled it open and held it as the two other boys walked in, and followed them in. They were greeted by Crutchie sitting at one of the tables in the lobby on his phone.

"Yo, Crutchie!" Race called, giving his friend a fist bump. "How's it going?"

"Stop acting like we haven't seen each other all summer, Race." Crutchie scolded. "We just saw each other last week."

"That's a lifetime!" Race dramatically flopped into the chair next to Crutchie's. Jack and Davey down across from them, snickering.

"Hey, guys!" Albert announced his presence, sitting down in one of the empty chairs next to them. His new boyfriend, Elmer, timidly sat down next to him. Albert had introduced them to him to the group at Race's end of summer party last week, and he was still a little unsure of the group.

"Hey, Albert! Elmer!" Race greeted, smiling at them.

"How's Spot adjusting to college?" Albert asked Race.

"Good." Race smiled. "It sucks not seeing him at school every day, but since he's going to community college and living at home, I get to see him all the time."

"That's good," Albert said, then turned to Davey. "How's Sarah and Kath?"

"Sarah's doing well," Davey responded. "And Kath... is doing the best she can, considering."

"Considering what?" Romeo asked, sitting down at the table, pulling his new fling into his lap - a sophomore girl named Smalls who had just moved here two weeks ago and hasn't had a chance to hear about Romeo's 'reputation' yet. Everyone was just taking bets of how long she'll last. Romeo swears she's 'the one', but that's what he says about all of his flings, and his friends know different.

"The trial," Davey answered Romeo's question. "A freshman, or I guess sophomore now, Sniper, reported to the cops that she was abused by Morris over the summer, and now he's on trial for domestic abuse. And since he was eighteen the second time he did it, he's being tried as an adult. Kath's being called in to testify next week. She seems really nervous about it, but the lawyer knows the judge they were assigned and said that she was a victim of domestic abuse herself, so they think it'll be a very open-and-shut case and that he'll be going away for a long time."

"Wow." Crutchie breathed, "Well, I guess that's good." Then, he looked up and smiled. Finch, Crutchie's boyfriend of two months, kissed Crutchie on the cheek and sat down next to him, and filling the last seat at the table.

"How's it going, guys?" He smiled, looking around at everyone at the table.

"Awesome!" Race replied, starting another rant about how this was gonna be the 'best year ever'.

Soon, the warning bell rang, letting everyone know that they only had five minutes to get to their first period if they didn't want to be late. Jack and Davey stood up, and bid the group a quick goodbye, before walking hand in hand towards their shared first period class - creative writing.

As they silently walked through the halls, Jack observed the tiny freshmen with their paper maps, trying to find their way towards their classes, to the football players and cheerleaders advertising the homecoming game next Friday. But mostly, he was looking at Davey. He watched as a small smile slowly formed on Davey's face as they walked towards their class. Jack knew that this was his happy place, and he was glad he had the opportunity to come back here for another year rather than being in the hell hole that was his father's house.

Jack still remembered that day in court very clearly.

_"The court has come to a decision." Judge Roosevelt said from his podium. "The full custody of Sarah, David, and Lester Jacobs goes to Esther Jacobs."_

_Jack took a sharp breath in, then signed in relief. He felt Davey relax beside him, smiling a little._

_"There is also another matter at hand." The judge added. "Based on the testimony of Mr. David Jacobs today, Mayer Jacobs will be held in police custody until he has a chance to be tried in a criminal court for domestic abuse."_

_Jack looked over at Davey's Dad, who was fuming, his face was beet red as he was put in handcuffs and led away by the security officers._

"...Jack?" Davey said, pulling his boyfriend out of his daze. "This is it, right?" He asked, gesturing to the classroom in front of them.

"Yeah," Jack replied, recognizing the number from the schedule that was emailed to him last week.

As the two boys walked into the classroom, Davey asked, "What were you thinking about?"

"Oh, just how lucky I am that I get to have you here with me." Jack smiled as they sat next to each other in the back of the classroom.

"Aww." Davey smiled, kissing Jack on the cheek as the bell rang, signaling the beginning of a new school year.

Jack smiled at his boyfriend as the teacher began to take attendance, reminiscing not only about their relationship over the past few months, but about their friendship over the course of their entire lives. He kissed Davey on the cheek again and put his arm around his boyfriend's shoulders before finally turning his attention to the teacher.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap, folks! Thank you all so much for sticking with me through this story and through my (too) long hiatuses. I also am announcing a new story that should be posted in about a week or so, called Soulmarks, a newsies Jack/Crutchie/Davey modern AU. I'm really excited about this story, and I hope you'll all come and check it out! 
> 
> Kisses!  
-Lilluv


End file.
